HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

A Portrait of James Joyces Epiphanies as a Source

Text
Ilaria Natali

Abstract: The brief prose sketches now commonly referred to as Epiphanies

not only represent the first available documentation of James Joyces literary
activity, but also a major source of material for his novels. The collection
has been studied especially in relation to Joyces protean narrative
techniques, where the term epiphany has come to indicate a form of
literary expression that can be identified in most joycean writings. Wide
critical attention has also been devoted to the aesthetic conception
underlying Epiphanies, as in Hendry and Bejas pivotal studies: these
mainstream discourses have overshadowed another significant area for
investigation, that is, how the texts of the collection were re-employed and
included in Joyces later works. This study intends to historicize Epiphanies
in the context of Joyces production, analyzing in particular the modalities
of their rewriting in Stephen Hero and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Focusing on the process of textual formation can expand our awareness of
the hybrid forces that drove Joyces creativity, allowing a deeper insight into
his literary production. After all, Joyce himself stressed the progressive
mode of any textualization, showing he never considered his texts finished,
but rather a sequentiality of improbable possibles.1

1 James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992), 110, line 11.
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

1. The epiphany as aesthetic category

Joyce began to jot down little character-revealing dialogues and
various impressions, which he tried to perfect and rework into prose
poems, sometimes spending a whole day in agitation writing half a page.
This composite manuscript he called Epiphanies.2
An intrinsic duplicity characterizes the word epiphany, which
indicates both any text included in Joyces homonymous collection and an
abstract theoretical concept:3 in fact, the term can refer to an idea of poetic
revelation which occurs in everyday trivial situations and is worded
through the often babbling utterances of common spoken language.
It is not possible to provide a description of Joyces theoretical
notion of epiphany without encountering major difficulties, since the
available documentation on this subject provides scarce information. The
conceptual model underlying Epiphanies4 is only exposed in the manuscript
of Stephen Hero:5
By an epiphany he [Stephen] meant a sudden spiritual manifestation,
whether in the vulgarity of speech or of gesture or in a memorable
phase of the mind itself. He believed that it was for the man of
letters to record these epiphanies with extreme care, seeing that they
themselves are the most delicate and evanescent of moments.
For a long time I couldnt make out what Aquinas meant. He uses
a figurative word ... but I have solved it. Claritas is quidditas. After the
analysis which discovers the second quality the mind makes the only
logically possible synthesis and discovers the third quality. This is the

2 Stanislaus Joyce, Recollections of James Joyce (New York: James Joyce Society, 1950),13.
3 In the following discussion, epiphany in inverted commas means the modality of
expression in a broad sense; when not in inverted commas, the term refers to a specific text
in Joyces collection Epiphanies.
4 The available manuscripts have no title whatsoever: the title Epiphanies is the result of a

posthumous critical reconstruction based on external documentation and various

testimonies, such as Stanislaus Joyces above quoted passage.
5 As is well known, Stephen Hero is the first novel Joyce ever wrote and represents the main

available source of the material elaborated in Portrait. Only part of its manuscript is now
extant, and is preserved in three different University Libraries: the Harvard College Library
(Harvard University), the Yale University Library and the Cornell Joyce Collection. Stephen
Hero was presumably composed between 1904 and 1906; unpublished, it was printed only
in 1944.
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

moment which I call epiphany. First we recognize that the object is

one integral thing, then we recognize that it is an organized
composite structure, a thing in fact: finally, when the relation of the
parts is exquisite, when the parts are adjusted to the special point, we
recognize that it is that thing which it is. Its soul, its whatness, leaps
to us from the vestment of its appearance. The soul of the
commonest object, the structure of which is so adjusted, seems to us
radiant. The object achieves its epiphany.6

The aesthetical theory expressed in this passage is not devoid of

ambiguity:7 while the epiphany seems to translate its subject and object in a
state of absolute truth, the style of Joyces sketches submerges the
revelation in forms of hesitation and confusion. Moreover, Schiralli says, in
Aquinas philosophy quiddity cannot tell us what makes that thing
which it is, as Joyce wants it to tell us,8 since it lacks the principle of
individuation which is fundamental in Stephens conception of epiphany.
It should be noted that philosophical references in Stephen Hero
sometimes appear adapted or exploited in order to justify the
protagonists beliefs: significantly, Stephen is said to choose from his books
only the words and phrases [which are] most amenable to his theory (SH
26). Scholes and Kain identify a similar attitude in Joyce himself:

6 James Joyce, Stephen Hero, ed. T. Spencer, J. Slocum and H. Cahoon (New York: New
Directions, 1963), 211-213. All subsequent references to Stephen Hero will be indicated
parenthetically in the body of the text through the title abbreviation SH followed by page
numbers.
7 Stephen Hero and Portrait both describe three stages in the development of aesthetic

perception, which are derived from Aquinas philosophy; but while the third stage is clearly
associated to the epiphanic revelation in Stephen Hero, in Portrait it is defined a supreme
quality felt by the artist when the esthetic image is first conceived in his imagination
See James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992),
231. In Joyces published works, the term epiphany is mentioned only in Ulysses, and
without reference to the aesthetic category. See James Joyce, Ulysses (Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1992), 50, lines 13-7. All subsequent references to Portrait will be indicated
parenthetically in the body of the text through the title abbreviation P followed by page
numbers.
8 Martin Schiralli, Art and the Joycean Artist, Journal of Aesthetic Education 23, no. 4 (1989):

45.
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

Joyces practice with Aristotle and Aquinas was not to work out their
theories but to borrow single phrases which caught his fancy and
work out his own interpretations of the possibilities inherent in
those phrases.9
It is also worth emphasizing that Stephens ideas only supposedly
coincide with Joyces: the only available definition of epiphany appears in
a fictitious context, with all consequential mediations. After all, Stephens
superficial knowledge of philosophy in Stephen Hero might be intentionally
aimed to offer a desecrating perspective on the hero: Lernout perceives a
similar potential irony in notebook Buffalo VI.B.10,10 where Joyce writes
discussing Aden war SD [Stephen Dedalus] said that he had read Motleys
Rise of Dutch Republic (had read title).11
Despite the various problems of definition, some critics, among
whom Sydney Feshback, understand the term epiphany chiefly as a
generic category of artistic perception.12 The scope of this category, though,
is not established by any theoretical limitation, an indeterminacy that has
brought about a progressive widening in the meaning of epiphany and
epiphanies. These terms are often associated to the short stories included
in Dubliners,13 or adopted to describe narrative devices in Stephen Hero,
Portrait and Ulysses.14 Epiphanic forms and modalities are also commonly
recognized in Finnegans Wake, despite its complex language and styles. The
point is that some scholars seem to identify epiphany with an indefinite

9 Robert Scholes, Richard M. Kain, The Workshop of Daedalus (Evanston: Northwestern

U.P., 1965), 52.
10 Geert Lernout, text of the paper Joyce as a Reader delivered at the James Joyce

Summer School, Dublin, 1996 (typescript).

11 See Michael Groden et al. (ed.), The James Joyce Archive. Finnegans Wake: A Facsimile of

Buffalo Notebooks VI.B.9-VII.B.12 (London, New York: Garland, 1978), vol. 31.
12 Sydney Feshback, Hunting Epiphany-Hunters, PMLA 87, no. 2 (1972): 304.
13 See Harry T. Levin, James Joyce: A Critical Introduction (Norfolk Conn.: New Directions,

1941), 29; WilliamY. Tindall, A Readers Guide to James Joyce (London: Thames & Hudson,
1959), 11. Scholes specifies that Joyce did not refer to Dubliners as epiphanies, but as
epiclets. See Robert Scholes and Florence L. Walzl, The Epiphanies of Joyce, PMLA
82, no. 1 (1967): 152.
14 See Haskell M. Block, The Critical Theory of James Joyce, The Journal of Aesthetics and

Art Criticism 8 (1950): 181-4; Samuel L. Goldberg, The Classical Temper. A Study of James
Joyces Ulysses, (London: Chatto & Windus, 1961), 312; Geddes MacGregor, Artistic
Theory in Joyce, Life and Letters 54 (1947): 21-2; Hugh Kenner, Dublins Joyce (London:
Chatto & Windus, 1956), 144-154.
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

idea of revelation, which might be broadly applied to some passages of

Joyces writings or even to his production as a whole. Spencer, for example,
claims that
Dubliners, we may say, is a series of epiphanies describing apparently
trivial but actually crucial and revealing moments in the lives of
different characters. The Portrait may be seen as a kind of epiphany
a showing forth of Joyce himself as a young man; Ulysses is the
epiphany of Leopold Bloom And Finnegans Wake may be seen as
a vast enlargement, of course unconceived by Joyce as a young man,
of the same view.15
Scholes differs from this critical orientation and maintains that the
epiphany can only be considered a specific modality of literary
representation, which derives from a process of aesthetic acquisition similar
to that described in Stephen Hero. The term epiphany, Scholes notes, often
assumes the function of a clich in joycean criticism, since some scholars
take the term to refer to an artistic device which can be traced
throughout Joyces work.16 The approach which better reflects the
dichotomy inherent in the word epiphany is probably postulating a close
link between theoretical model and formal representation: although this
term undoubtedly refers to an aesthetic category, it cannot be stripped away
from the specific narrative strategy which accompanies it.
At a formal level, the sketches in Epiphanies share common elements
such as briefness, fragmentariness and obscurity; at a semantic level, no
specific pattern can be easily identified. When commenting on the possible
origins of Epiphanies, though, Joyces friend and schoolmate Oliver St. John
Gogarty implicitly suggested a thematic consistence:
Probably Fr. Darlington had taught him [Joyce], as an aside in his
Latin class for Joyce knew no Greek that Epiphany meant a
showing forth. So he recorded under Epiphany any showing
forth of the mind by which he considered one gave oneself away.17

15 Theodore Spencer, A Succession of Epiphanies, in James Joyces Dubliners: A Critical

Handbook, eds. J. R. Baker and T. F. Staley (Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company,
1969), 10-11.
16 Scholes and Walzl, The Epiphanies of Joyce, 154.
17 Oliver S.J. Gogarty, As I Was Going Down Sackville Street (New York: Reynal and

Hitchcock, 1937), 293-295. See also Scholes and Kain, The Workshop, 7.
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

Bernard Richards also remarks that epiphanic moments are

commonly aimed to note small errors. Epiphanies describe actions or
dialogues which unintentionally disclose inner thoughts and feelings,
conveying a kind of revelation which the scholar defines ironical and
possibly merciless.18 In light of all contradictions, indeterminacies and
hypotheses that characterize its notion, the intended vagueness of Bejas
definition of epiphany seems to best encounter most of its hybrid aspects:
a sudden spiritual manifestation, whether from some object,
scene, event, or memorable phase of the mind the manifestation
being out of proportion to the significance or strictly logical
relevance of whatever produces it.19
2. The documentation of Epiphanies and its problems
Joyce is generally assumed to have written Epiphanies between 1900
and 1904, as Scholes and Walzl suggest; Gabler indicates the years 1902-
1904 as a more likely period of elaboration, while Jacobs mentions the
biennium 1900-1902.20 Testimonies regarding the chronology of
composition are poor: what we know for certain is that, shortly after he left
for Paris in 1902, Joyce had already drafted at least part of Epiphanies, since
he sent George Russell some texts in order to receive his opinion.21
The extant manuscripts of Epiphanies are now in the Lockwood
Collection, University of Buffalo (Buffalo I.A) and Cornell University Joyce
Collection (Cornell 15, 17, 18).22 Buffalo I.A at Lockwood includes 22
epiphanies, allegedly fair copies of the texts, which are dated around 1903-
1904.23 The versos of the sheets are numbered on the inferior margin; the

18 Bernard Richards, Critical Idiom Epiphany, English Teaching in the United Kingdom,
<http://www.english1.org.uk/engrev2.htm> (Accessed September 15, 2010).
19 Morris Beja, Epiphany in the Modern Novel (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1971),

18.
20 Scholes and Walzl, The Epiphanies of Joyce, 152; Hans W. Gabler, Preface, in The James

Joyce Archive, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: A Facsimile of Epiphanies, Notes,
Manuscripts and Typescripts, ed. M. Groden et al. (New York, London: Garland, 1978), vol. 7,
xxiii; Joshua Jacobs, Joyces Epiphanic Mode: Material Language and the Representation
of Sexuality in Stephen Hero and Portrait, Twentieth Century Literature 46, no. 1 (2000): 20.
21 James Joyce, Letters, ed. R. Ellmann (New York: Viking, 1966), vol. II, 28.
22 All the manuscripts of Epiphanies are in facsimile in Groden et al., ed., The James Joyce

Archive, vol. 7.
23 Cfr. Gabler, Preface, xxiv.
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numeration presents wide gaps and consists of folios 1, 5, 12-14, 16, 19, 21,
22, 26, 28, 30, 42, 44, 45, 52, 56, 57, 59, 65, 70, 71, which suggests that
Epiphanies could originally have comprised at least 71 texts. Sheets 1, 5, 12,
14, 16, 19, 21, 22, 42, 44, 45 and 70 are marked with an x at the upper left
corner of the recto. Cornell 18 also contains a sketch known as Gogarty
epiphany, which cannot be dated with certainty; the text presents some
modifications and was probably drafted before the materials in Buffalo I.A.
Cornell 17 consists of 22 epiphanies, all written by Stanislaus Joyce
(James brother) on the verso of his manuscript Selections in Prose from
Various Authors. Stanislaus commonplace book is dated 1901, but the
sheets verso was probably re-used at a later stage.24 The texts are here
transcribed and completed with the authors name (Jas. A. Joyce) on
sheets numbered 40-53, 56-58, 61, 62 and 65.
Seventeen of the epiphanies in Cornell do not appear in the Buffalo
documentation, while recurring texts diverge primarily in punctuation; only
in Buffalo I.A.71 and Cornell 17.65 differences concern a personal pronoun
(her book, a book). The change might have been introduced by Joyce
at some stage of elaboration which is no longer extant, but Stanislaus error
is also a possibility. External interference with a writing process increases
the occurrence of unwilling departures from the authors text: it is therefore
necessary to keep in mind that Stanislaus copies might include
modifications that were not introduced by James.
Cornell 15 contains two additional copies of three epiphanies, which
Stanislaus transcribed on the verso of his work My Crucible, on wide
folded sheets; the texts show no differences from the corresponding ones at
Cornell 17. All in all, only 40 of the at least 71 epiphanies Joyce must have
written are now available; among the 40 sketches, 23 are in James Joyces
handwriting and 17 in Stanislaus.
Joyce reworked a number of the known epiphanies in Stephen Hero
and Portrait25; the collection was therefore re-used as some sort of
annotation, becoming an important source for the composition of these
novels. Yet, various testimonies suggest that, at first, Epiphanies was not

24Cfr. Gabler, Preface, xxv.

25Although re-elaborations of epiphanies appear in most of Joyces writings (see Scholes
and Kain, The Workshop, 11-50, notes), here I will examine only the relationships which
connect Epiphanies, Stephen Hero and Portrait.
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

meant for inclusion in other works. Significantly, Joyce had asked both
George Russell and W.B. Yeats to read some of his sketches: Yeats himself
recalls this episode,
I went out into the street and there a young man came up to me I
asked him to come with me to the smoking room of a restaurant in
OConnell Street, and read me a beautiful though immature and
eccentric harmony of little prose descriptions and meditations. He
had thrown over metrical form, he said, that he might get a form so
fluent that it would respond to the motions of the spirit 26
It is hardly imaginable that mere annotations might be so important
for Joyce as to show them to other writers. The function of the texts had
probably changed after 1902 and, at a certain stage, the epiphanies started
being re-read as compositional materials for the novels. This assumption is
further supported by a passage from Ulysses, where Joyce establishes a
relationship between his artistic experience and that of his character
Stephen Dedalus, also author of a collection of epiphanies:
Remember your epiphanies on green oval leaves, deeply deep, copies
to be sent if you died to all the great libraries of the world, including
Alexandria? (U 50:13-7)
Stephen ridicules the value he used to bestow on his epiphanies.
Although these considerations are included in a fictional work, the
Proteus passage can offer hints on the authors attitude towards his
juvenile production.
Epiphanies was never printed by Joyce. Silverman edited the 22 texts
of the Buffalo collection in 1956, but the whole available documentation
(comprehensive of the Cornell material) was published only in 1965, in The
Workshop of Daedalus.27 Here, Scholes and Kain proposed a subdivision of
the epiphanies that is now generally accepted in joycean criticism:
The Epiphanies which have been preserved fall readily into two
classes, which correspond, in many respects, to the two facets of
Stephen Daedalus definition in SH. In one kind the mind of the
writer is most important. These Epiphanies, which may be called

26 William B. Yeats, quoted in Richard Ellmann, James Joyce (New York, Oxford: Oxford
U.P., 1983), 102.
27 Scholes and Kain, The Workshop, 11-50.
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

narrative (though a case might be made for calling some of them

lyric) present for the most part memorable phases of Joyces mind
as he observes, reminisces, or dreams. The Epiphanies of the second
kind, which may be called dramatic, dispense with the narrator and
focus more on vulgarity of speech or of gesture.28
The sequence that the sketches might have had in Joyces collection
has been widely discussed. Scholes, Kain and Feshback emphasize that the
hand which numbered the manuscripts in Buffalo I.A can only supposed to
be Joyces; Feshback notes that the numbering might be even completely
unrelated to the texts drafted on the recto.29 Yet, Joyce had almost certainly
adopted a specific order for his Epiphanies: in 1903, when he wrote his
brother that he had composed 15 new epiphanies, he also specified, of
which twelve are insertions, and three additions.30 The expressions
insertions and additions point to the existence of a former organization
of the texts that Joyce was planning to modify.31 Yet, what puzzles the
scholars is that the orders of the texts at Buffalo and Cornell do not
correspond. As a matter of fact, Stanislaus might have copied James
epiphanies with different and subjective criteria, thus we cannot be sure that
he respected authorial choices. The reasons why he transcribed the texts are
unclear, as also the function and meaning they had for him; it is evident, for
example, that he selected only narrative sketches, probably out of personal
preference.
In The Workshop of Daedalus, Scholes and Kain propose an
organization of the texts that is neither that of the manuscripts in Buffalo,
nor that of the copies in Cornell: it represents a sort of compromise
between the numbering of the holographs in I.A and the order in which the
epiphanies appear reworked in Stephen Hero.32 This method, as Gabler notes,
is based on faulty premises:33 Scholes and Kain seem to assume that Joyce
composed Stephen Hero relying on the texts of Epiphanies. In this regard, The
Workshop of Daedalus was said to deny an autonomous structure to

28 Ibid., 3-4.
29 Ibid., 4-5. See also Feshback, Hunting Epiphany-Hunters, 304-305.
30 Joyce, Letters, (Vol. II), 35.
31 To this respect see also Scholes and Kain, The Workshop, 5-6.
32 For the methodological observations see Scholes and Kain, The Workshop, 5-6; the

epiphanies are transcribed in Ibid., 11-50.

33 Gabler, Preface, xxiv.
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

Epiphanies;34 I would rather say that it denies an autonomous structure to

Stephen Hero. Even elsewhere Scholes defines Epiphanies a skeletal outline
for the novel,35 but analysis of the available documentation excludes such a
relationship between the two texts: part of the compositional materials of
Stephen Hero is now in Buffalo II.A, where a chapter-by-chapter outline
refers to specific sketches as to materials that could be reworked in
particular contexts. Moreover, Stanislaus claimed that his brother included
the epiphanies in Portrait according to their thematic relevance in the
context:
Some of these epiphanies he introduced here and there into A
Portrait of the Artist where the occasion offered and some into the
imaginary diary at the end.36
I am inclined to believe that Joyce reworked his sketches in Stephen
Hero with similar procedures, since there is no documentary proof offering
plausible reasons why he should have respected their original sequence. It is
also worth mentioning that Epiphanies was later reworked in Ulysses, hence
the collection does not have an exclusive or privileged relationship with
Stephen Hero or with Portrait.
3. Re-elaboration of Epiphanies in Stephen Hero and Portrait
Collation of the texts of Epiphanies, Stephen Hero and Portrait reveals
that 22 out of 40 available epiphanies were included in the novels. While
most re-elaborations of the sketches in later texts are already identified in
The Workshop of Daedalus,37 the way in which the texts were modified has
gone partially unnoticed. Hereafter I wish to try and reveal the procedures
Joyce adopted in order to rewrite the epiphanies in Stephen Hero and Portrait,
also focusing on the possible meanings and implications of the textual
changes.
The available chapters of Stephen Hero include 13 known
epiphanies.38 Textual addition seems to acquire particular relevance in the

34 Feshback, Hunting Epiphany-Hunters, 305.

35 Scholes and Walzl, The Epiphanies of Joyce, 152.
36 Stanislaus Joyce, My Brothers Keeper (London: Faber & Faber, 1982), quoted in Scholes

and Kain, The Workshop, 9.

37 Ibid.
38 Considering first the manuscripts in Buffalo I.A then the manuscripts in Cornell, the

epiphanies included in Stephen Hero are: Buffalo I.A.12 (SH 251), I.A.14 (SH 46), I.A.16 (SH
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

process of rewriting, since Joyce generally expands the epiphanies and

ascribes them a specific meaning, which is not explicitly conveyed by the
originals. The explicative reworking of the sketches in Stephen Hero
concerns both dramatic and narrative texts, in particular Buffalo I.A.12 (SH
251), I.A.14 (SH 46), I.A.16 (SH 43), I.A.21 (SH 45), I.A.42 (SH 163) and
I.A.45-6 (SH 165).
Textual additions should also be viewed in a larger frame, since the
main and fundamental transformation lies in the a priori adaptation of the
epiphanic form to the novel form: in other words, the re-elaboration of
epiphanies implies a shift from one literary genre to another. This
procedure concerns all epiphanies included in Stephen Hero, but it is
obviously more evident in the rewriting of the dramatic sketches. The
process of modification of epiphany Buffalo I.A.45 is exemplary of both
textual augmentation and formal adaptation:
Epiphanies (Buffalo I.A.45) Stephen Hero (SH 169)
[Dublin: in the National Library] [McCann] shook hands briskly
with Stephen:
I was sorry to hear of the death
Skeffington I was sorry to hear of
of your sister.... sorry we didnt
the death of your brother sorry we
know in time.... to have been at the
didnt know in time to have been at
funeral.
the funeral
Joyce O, he was very young a Stephen released his hand gradually
and said: O, she was very
boy
young... a girl. McCann released his
Skeffington Still it hurts hand at the same rate of release,
and said: Still.... it hurts. The
acme of unconvincingness seemed
to Stephen to have been reached at
that moment.

43), I.A.21 (SH 45), I.A.22 (SH 244), I.A.42 (SH 163), I.A.44 (SH 167), I.A.45 (SH 169),
Cornell 17.42 Dull clouds have covered the sky (SH 38), Cornell 17.44 The children
who have stayed latest (SH 67), Cornell 17.61-62 The quick light shower is over (SH
183-4), Cornell 17.40-41 The spell of arms and voices (SH 237), Cornell 17.45-46 They
are all asleep (SH 165).
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

The characters names change: Skeffington and Joyce become

respectively McCann and Stephen. Moreover, the death of a brother in
I.A.45 is transformed into the death of a sister in Stephen Hero. The formal
peculiarities of the epiphany appear extensively changed: in the novel, for
instance, stage directions disappear. The most important modification
seems to be the presence of a narrator in Stephen Hero: a tranche de vie, or
pseudo-theatrical text becomes a fictional construction. The apparent
objectivity of I.A.45 is eliminated in Stephen Hero, since the narrator both
illustrates and comments the events: his voice acquires an explicatory
function, he provides new information and clarifies what the dialogue
means in the novel. While the sketch remains ambiguous and open to
different interpretations, its rewriting is given a specific sense, which
partially deprives it of the original obscurity. For instance, claiming that the
acme of unconvincingness seemed to Stephen to have been reached at that
moment, the narrator sheds light on the emotional impact the episode had
on the protagonist and makes clear that Stephen perceived a hypocritical
attitude in McCann. The epiphany as such disappears in Stephen Hero;
strategies of narrative representation change and, consequently, the sketches
lose their evanescence.
Similar kinds of modification characterize the rewriting of epiphany
Buffalo I.A.42:
Epiphanies (Buffalo I.A.42) Stephen Hero (SH 163)
[Dublin: in the house in Glengariff A form which he knew for his
Parade: evening] mothers appeared far down in the
room, standing in the doorway. In
the gloom her excited face was
Mrs Joyce (crimson, trembling, crimson. A voice which he
appears at the pan our door) Jim! remembered as his mothers, a voice
Joyce (at the piano)Yes? of a terrified human being, called
his name. The form at the piano
Mrs Joyce Do you know anything answered:
about the body?... What ought I
do? Theres some matter coming Yes?
away from the hole in Georgies Do you know anything about the
stomach body?.... He heard his mothers
Did you ever hear of that voice addressing him excitedly like
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

happening? the voice of a messenger in a play.

Joyce (surprised) I
dont What ought I do? Theres some
know. matter coming away from the hole
Mrs Joyce Ought I send for the in Isabels.... stomach.... Did you
ever hear of that happening?
doctor, do you think?
Joyce I dont know.. What I dont know, he answered trying
to make sense of her words, trying
hole?
to say them again to himself.
Mrs Joyce (impatient) The hole
Ought I send for the doctor....
we all have here (points)
Did you ever hear of that?.... What
Joyce (stands up) ought I do?
I dont know.... What hole?
The hole.... the hole we all have....
here.

Stage directions are again omitted in Stephen Hero, where Mrs.

Joyce becomes Mrs. Daedalus, mother of the protagonist, and Joyce is
modified into Stephen. In the novel, the narrator describes the emotive
reactions of both characters in detail, emphasizing how Stephen perceives
theatricality in his mothers actions (like the voice of a messenger in a
play).
Mrs. Daedalus sudden appearance seems to surprise the
protagonist, whom at first does not fully realize the significance of the
events and is confused by his mothers questions. The passage in Stephen
Hero not only is introduced by a narrator, but it also highlights Stephens
stages of apprehension of the dreadful situation: first he can hardly
recognize his mother (a voice of a terrified human being, a form which
he knew for his mothers, a voice which he remembered as his
mothers), then he has difficulty in understanding what she says (trying to
make sense of her words). On the other hand, the phrase the form at the
piano seems to reproduce Mrs. Daedalus view: she can only see the
shadow of her son in the dark room. The recording of a dialogue in
Buffalo I.A.42 becomes a narrative passage, where an omniscient narrator
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

approaches momentarily both characters and offers some fragments of

their perceptions.
The epiphanies which appear in the available sections of Stephen Hero
are all marked by an x in Buffalo I.A, possibly a sign that Joyce had
reworked (or intended to rework) the texts. Unfortunately, the gaps in the
documentations of both Epiphanies and Stephen Hero do not make it possible
to establish whether there is actual correspondence between the x sign
and successive reworking of the sketches. Yet, the manuscripts of Epiphanies
contain hints to the fact Joyce could have re-read Buffalo I.A while working
on Stephen Hero; for example, the following annotations appear at the
bottom of page 5:
Kinahan
Civilizing work of the Jesuit in Paraguay, Mexico and Peru and in the
Seychelle Islands, described as an earthly paradise
The nomad races into reductions, wardance,39
The name Kinahan also appears in what has long been defined the
Pola notebook, that is to say, among annotations Joyce drafted while
writing Stephen Hero; Kinahan, Joyces friend, was said to have inspired the
character of McCann. The lines that follow this name in I.A.5 are connected
to chapter XIV of Stephen Hero, where the work done by the missionary
fathers is discussed (SH 241). Since some annotations for Stephen Hero
appear in I.A, it seems reasonable to suppose Joyce could have used this
manuscript while he was reworking the epiphanies in the novel.
The incompleteness of the documentation leaves many other
questions open, such as how many epiphanies had actually been reworked
in Stephen Hero. The available part of the novel includes some passages that
bear similarities with the texts of Epiphanies:
One night as he was returning from a party a reporter of one of the
Dublin papers, who had been introduced that evening to the
prodigy, approached him and after a few exchanges said to him
tentatively: I was reading of that writer.... whats this you call
him.... Maeterlinck the other day.... you know? Yes.... I was

39The text is transcribed from the facsimiles in Groden et al., ed., The James Joyce Archive
(vol. 7), 3.
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

reading, The Intruder I think was the name of it.... Very... curious
play... (SH 39).

Yes, yes, said Father Butt one day after one of these scenes, I
see.... I quite see your point.... It would apply of course to the
dramas of Turgnieff? Stephen had read and admired certain
translations of Turgnieffs novels and stories and he asked
therefore with a genuine note in his voice: Do you mean his
novels? Novels, yes, said Father Butt swiftly ....his novels, to be
sure.... but of course they are dramas.... are they not, Mr Daedalus?
(SH 42).

Two women stopped beside the holy water font and after scraping
their hands vainly over the bottom crossed themselves in a slovenly
fashion with their dry hands. One of them sighed and drew her
brown shawl about her: An his language, said the other woman.
Aw yis. Here the other woman sighed in her turn and drew her
shawl about her:
Ony, said she, God bless the gintleman, he uses the words that
you nor me cant intarprit (SH 121).

The young Lady (drawing discreetly) O, yes, I was at the

cha pel
The young Gentleman (inaudibly) I (again inaudibly) I
The young Lady (softly) O but youre ve ry wick
ed(SH 211).
Although epiphanies lose their original function in Stephen Hero, they
usually maintain some of their formal characteristics, such as hesitations, or
the inflexions of spoken language, which appear slightly inconsistent with
the overall style of the novel. The above quoted examples present such
anomalies, so it is reasonable to suppose they might be re-elaborations of
sketches that are now lost: yet, there is no documentary definitive proof that
connects these passages to Epiphanies.
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

Portrait includes eleven available epiphanies,40 which appear

reworked with two different and opposing methods: the sketches are
modified both through textual increment and decrement. In other words,
some epiphanies acquire new meanings through textual expansion, as in
Stephen Hero, and some become even more ambiguous through elimination
of key information. Buffalo I.A.1 represents a typical case of textual
suppression:
Epiphanies (Buffalo I.A.1) Portrait (P 4)
[Bray: in the parlour of the He hid under the table. His
house in Martello Terrace] mother said:
Mr Vance (comes in with a O, Stephen will apologise.
stick) O, you know, hell have Dante said:
to apologise, Mrs Joyce.
O, if not, the eagles will come
Mrs Joyce O yes Do you and pull out his eyes.
hear that, Jim?
Pull out his eyes,
Mr Vance Or else if he
doesnt the eaglesll come and Apologise,
pull out his eyes. Apologise,
Mrs Joyce O, but Im sure he Pull out his eyes.
will apologise.
Apologise,
Joyce (under the table, to himself)
Pull out his eyes,
Pull out his eyes,
Pull out his eyes,
Apologise,
Apologise.
Apologise,
Pull out his eyes.

40Considering first the manuscripts in Buffalo I.A, then the manuscripts in Cornell, the
epiphanies included in Portrait are: Buffalo I.A-1 (P 4), Cornell 17.40-41 The spell of arms
and voices (P 275), 17.41 Her arm is laid for a moment on my knees (P 164), 17.44 The
children who have stayed latest (P 72), 17.45 She is engaged (P 238), 17.53 Here are we
come together (P 106), 17.56 High up in the old, dark-windowed house (P 71), 17.56-57
A long curving gallery (P 272), 17.57-58 A small field of still weeds (P 148-9), 17.61-62
The quick light shower is over (P 234-5), 17.65 A moonless night (P 25).
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

Apologise,
Pull out his eyes,
Pull out his eyes,
Apologise.

For one thing, Buffalo I.A.1 becomes more obscure and inexplicit in
Portrait: any reference to the fact that the protagonist is repeating the
formula to himself disappears. In Portrait, the chiasmic refrain Pull out
his eyes, / Apologise is not explicitly attributed to Stephen, who might be
listening to somebody elses words.
The formal transformation of dramatic epiphanies in the narrative
text is again pivotal to the understanding of any additional changes. In
Portrait the narrator rarely has an explicative function, given that in the
novel reality appears focused through Stephens perspective: the
protagonists mental and cognitive processes are reproduced without
introduction or clarification, often even without the use of verbs of
perception.
The procedures of textual amplification which characterize the
elaboration of Epiphanies into Portrait include both amplifications and
additions. Amplifications merely expand ideas which were already extant in
the original epiphanic text, while additions actually introduce new meanings
and provide further information. These procedures are best exemplified by
the re-elaboration of Cornell 17.57-58 and 17.56-57:
Epiphanies (Cornell 17.57-58) Portrait (P 148-9)
A small field of still weeds and Creatures were in the field: one,
thistles alive with confused three, six: creatures were moving
forms, half-men, half-goats. in the field, hither and thither.
Dragging their great tails they Goatish creatures with human
move hither and thither, faces, hornybrowed, lightly
aggressively. bearded and grey as indiarubber.
Their faces are lightly bearded, The malice of evil glittered in
pointed and grey as india- their hard eyes, as they moved
rubber. A secret personal sin hither and thither, trailing their
long tails behind them. A rictus
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011
directs them, holding them now,
as in reaction, to constant
malevolence. One is clasping
about his body a torn flannel
jacket; another complains
monotonously as his beard
catches in the stiff weeds. They
move about me, enclosing me,
that old sin sharpening their
eyes to cruelty, swishing
through the fields in slow
circles, thrusting upwards their
terrific faces.
Help!
Epiphanies (Cornell 17.56-57)
A long curving gallery: from the
floor arise pillars of dark
vapours. It is peopled by the
images of fabulous kings, set in
stone. Their hands are folded
upon their knees, in token of
weariness, and their eyes are
darkened for the errors of men
go up before them for ever as
dark vapours.
of cruel malignity lit up greyly
their old bony faces. One was
clasping about his ribs a torn
flannel waistcoat, another
complained monotonously as his
beard stuck in the tufted weeds.
Soft language issued from their
spittleless lips as they swished in
slow circles round and round the
field, winding hither and thither
through the weeds, dragging
their long tails amid the rattling
canisters. They moved in slow
circles, circling closer and closer
to enclose, to enclose, soft
language issuing from their lips,
their long swishing tails be-
smeared with stale shite,
thrusting upwards their terrific
faces....
Portrait (P 272)
A troubled night of dreams.
Want to get them off my chest.
A long curving gallery. From the
floor ascend pillars of dark
vapours. It is peopled by the
images of fabulous kings, set in
stone. Their hands are folded
upon their knees in token of
weariness and their eyes are
darkened for the errors of men
go up before them for ever as
dark vapours.
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

The rewriting of Cornell 17.57-58 in Portrait includes descriptive

elements which enrich and further develop the imagery, but do not add to
the meaning of the epiphany. In the re-elaboration of Cornell 17.56-57,
instead, the phrase a troubled night of dreams (P 272) specifies that the
images concern a nocturnal vision: the passage is therefore explicitly
attributed an oneiric nature.
Phenomena of textual amplification concern the rewriting of Cornell
17.57-58 and Cornell 17.44, while addition concerns Cornell 17.56 and
17.56-57. Textual decrement is used in six cases: Cornell 17.1, 41, 45, 53,
61-62 and 65. In all, while Epiphanies is reworked in Stephen Hero mainly
through inclusion of new textual portions, in Portrait the sketches often
become more ambiguous and obscure.
The use of Epiphanies in Stephen Hero and Portrait diverges not only in
the methods of re-elaboration of the sketches, but also in the choice of the
texts. Significantly, the novels contain re-workings of different epiphanies;
Stephen Hero includes mostly dramatic sketches, while Portrait encompasses
almost exclusively narrative ones. According to the available
documentation, only three epiphanies appear in both Stephen Hero and
Portrait, The spell of arms and voices (Cornell 17.40-41), The children
who have stayed last (Cornell 17.44) and The quick light shower is over
but tarries (Cornell 17.61-62). Thus, epiphanies might have been directly
reworked in Portrait, without the mediation of Stephen Hero; a collation of
the texts of Epiphanies, Stephen Hero and Portrait can provide more detailed
information in this regard:
Epiphanies (Cornell Stephen Hero (SH 237) Portrait (P 275)
17.40-41)
The spell of arms and [Missing pages] The spell of arms and
voices the white voices: the white arms
nations. They were held
arms of roads, their of roads, their promise
out to say: We are alone
promise of close of close embraces and
come: and the voices said
embraces and the the black arms of tall
with them: We are your
black arms of tall ships that stand against
people: and the air grew
ships that stand the moon, their tale of
thick with their company
against the moon, distant nations. They are
as they called to him, their
their tale of distant held out to say: We are
kinsman, making ready to
nations. They are held alone. Come. And the
go, shaking the wings of
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

out to say: We are their exultant and terrible voices say with them:
alone, come. And youth. We are your kinsmen.
the voices say with And the air is thick with
them: We are your their company as they
people. And the air is call to me, their kins-
thick with their man, making ready to
company as they call go, shaking the wings of
to me their kinsman, their exultant and
making ready to go, terrible youth.
shaking the wings of
their exultant and
terrible youth.

In Stephen Hero, the epiphany is modified through a shift in the

verbal tense (They were held out) and inclusion of third person pronouns
(they called to him), both supposedly meant to adapt the sketch to the
novel form. In Portrait, the passage is part of a narrative experimentation,
the so-called Stephens diary, where the protagonist writes down his
thoughts and feelings using the present tense and first person pronoun:
Joyce seems therefore to have returned to Cornell 17 (they call to me),
with the only substitution of people with kinsmen.
Epiphanies (Cornell Stephen Hero (SH 67) Portrait (P 72)
17.44)
The children who One rainy night when the In the hall the children
have stayed latest are streets were too bad for who had stayed latest
getting on their thingswalking she took the were putting on their
to go home for the Rathmines tram at the things: the party was
party is over. This is Pillar and as she held over. It was the last
the last tram. The lankdown her hand to him tram. The lank brown
brown horses know it from the step, thanking horses knew it and
and shake their bells him for his kindness and shook their bells to the
to the clear night, in wishing him goodnight, clear night in
admonition. that episode of their admonition. The
The conductor talks childhood seemed to conductor talked with
with the driver; both magnetize the minds of the driver, both nodding
nod often in the green both at the same instant. often in the green light
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

light of the lamp. of the lamp. On the

There is nobody near. empty seats of the tram
We seem to listen, I were scattered a few
on the upper step and coloured tickets.
she on the lower. She They seemed to listen,
comes up to my step he on the upper step
many times and goes and she on the lower.
down again, between She came up to his step
our phrases, and once many times and went
or twice remains down to hers again
beside me, forgetting between their phrases
to go down, and then and once or twice stood
goes down.. Let be; close beside him for
let be. And now she some moments on the
does not urge her upper step, forgetting to
vanities her fine go down, and then went
dress and sash and down. His heart danced
long black stockings upon her movements
for now (wisdom like a cork upon a tide
of children) we seem . He saw her urge her
to know that this end vanities, her fine dress
will please us better and sash and long black
than any end we have stockings, and knew that
laboured for. he had yielded to them a
thousand times.

The text of Stephen Hero barely alludes to the epiphany, which

appears reworked especially through eliminations. In Portrait, on the
contrary, Cornell 17.44 is completely re-read and widened through
descriptive additions. Even in this case, it is possible to infer a direct
connection between Epiphanies and Portrait.
Epiphanies (Cornell Stephen Hero (SH 183-4) Portrait (P 234-5)
17.61-2)
The quick light The quick light shower The quick light shower
shower is over but was over, tarrying, a had drawn off, tarrying
tarries, a cluster of cluster of diamonds, in clusters of diamonds
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

diamonds, among the among the shrubs of the among the shrubs of the
shrubs of the quadrangle where an quadrangle where an
quadrangle where an exhalation ascended from exhalation was breathed
exhalation arises from the blackened earth. The forth by the blackened
the black earth. In the company in the colonnade earth. Their trim boots
colonnade are the was leaving shelter, with prattled as they stood on
girls, an April many a doubting glance, the steps of the
company. They are with a prattle of trim colonnade, talking
leaving shelter, with boots, a pretty rescue of quietly and gaily,
many a doubting petticoats, under glancing at the clouds,
glance, with the prattle umbrellas, a light armoury, holding their umbrellas
of trim boots and the upheld at cunning angles. at cunning angles against
pretty rescue of petti- the few last raindrops,
He saw them returning to
coats, under closing them again,
the convent-demure cor-
umbrellas, a light holding their skirts
ridors and simple dormit-
armoury, upheld at demurely.
ories, a quiet rosary of
cunning angles. They hours while the rain-
are returning to the clouds retreated towards
convent-demure the west []. He saw far
corridors and simple away amid a flat rain-
dormitories, a white
swept country a high plain
rosary of hours building with windows
having heard the fair that filtered the obscure
promises of Spring, daylight. Three hundred
that well-graced boys, noisy and hungry,
ambassador. sat at long tables eating
Amid a flat rain-swept beef fringed with green fat
country stands a high like blubber and junks of
plain building, with white damp bread
windows that filter the
obscure daylight.
Three hundred boys,
noisy and hungry, sit
at long tables eating
beef fringed with
green fat and veget-
ables that are still rank
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

of the earth.

The readings tarrying and blackened earth occur in both novels,

suggesting that Joyce rewrote Cornell 17.61-62 in Portrait through Stephen
Hero and not directly from Epiphanies. All in all, in Portrait Joyce seems to
have worked simultaneously on the original text of Epiphanies and its re-
elaborations in Stephen Hero: Epiphanies can be said to represent a direct
source for both novels.
Analysis of Ephiphanies and its manuscripts reveals much about both
Joyces corpus and conception of writing. Although he reached the most
significant formal, stylistic and structural innovations in his later novels, it is
clear he started experimenting with different genres from his very first
literary creations. The sketches are not easily classifiable as prose, drama or
poetry: indeed the epiphany can be considered an original literary form.
The collection was never published, but the epiphanies apparently assumed
the function of primary paradigms that were re-read and re-interpreted in
subsequent texts. Supposedly, Joyce repeatedly modified similar episodes
according to new perceptions and understanding he acquired over time: he
seemed to consider different perspectives on similar subjects as
indispensable in order to gain a comprehensive look on reality, as in the
parallax or parallactic drift of socalled fixed stars, in reality evermoving
wanderers from immeasurably remote eons to infinitely remote futures.41
The detours and returns which characterize Joyces creative
processes well represent this concept of artistic expression: each epiphany
appears like an evermoving wanderer which crosses various texts at
different times, and is always observed from a new angle. This view also
implies that writing can only yield incomplete results: Joyce seems aware of
the fluidity of both time and human conscience, which produce constantly
changing realities that cannot be grasped on a fixed page. This concept is
part of a poetics that characterized the whole of Joyces literary career: as he
stated as early as 1904, the past assuredly implies a fluid succession of

41 In Ulysses, reference is to parallax (one of the Leitmotifs of the novel), the phenomenon
according to which a celestial body appears to change its angular position if observed from
different points of view. The phrase evermoving wanderers only appears in the Gabler
edition: James Joyce, Ulysses, ed. H.W. Gabler (New York: Vintage, 1986), 573, line 1053.
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

presents, the development of an entity of which our actual present is a

phase only.42

REFERENCES:
Joyce, James. Stephen Hero. Ed. by T. Spencer, J. Slocum, H. Cahoon. New
York: New Directions, 1963.
. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992.
. Ulysses. New York: Vintage, 1986 and Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992.
. Finnegans Wake. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992.
. Letters. Ed. by R. Ellmann. Vol. 2. New York: Viking, 1966.
Groden, Micheal et alii (eds.), The James Joyce Archive. A Portrait of the Artist
as a Young Man: A Facsimile of Epiphanies, Notes, Manuscripts and
Typescripts. Vol. 7. New York and London: Garland, 1978.
. The James Joyce Archive. Finnegans Wake: A Facsimile of Buffalo Notebooks
VI.B.9-VII.B.12. Vol. 31. New York and London: Garland, 1978.

Beja, Morris. Epiphany in the Modern Novel. Seattle: University of Washington

Press, 1971.
Block, Haskell M. The Critical Theory of James Joyce. The Journal of
Aesthetics and Art Criticism 8 (1950): 181-184.
Ellmann, Richard. James Joyce. New York, Oxford: Oxford U.P., 1983.
Feshback, Sydney. Hunting Epiphany-Hunters. PMLA 87, no. 2 (1972):
304-306.
Gabler, Hans W. Preface. In The James Joyce Archive, A Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man: A Facsimile of Epiphanies, Notes, Manuscripts
and Typescripts. Vol. 7, edited by M. Groden et al., xxiii-xxxv. New
York and London: Garland, 1978.

42 Manuscript Buffalo II.A.1, reproduced in Groden et al., ed., The James Joyce Archive, vol. 7.
 HUMANICUS -------------------------------------------------------------- issue 6, 2011

Gogarty, Oliver S.J. As I Was Going Down Sackville Street. New York: Reynal
and Hitchcock, 1937.
Goldberg, Samuel L. The Classical Temper. A Study of James Joyces Ulysses.
London: Chatto & Windus, 1961.
Jacobs, Joshua. Joyces Epiphanic Mode: Material Language and the
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Century Literature 46, no. 1 (2000): 20-33.
Joyce, Stanislaus. My Brothers Keeper. London: Faber & Faber, 1982.
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Kenner, Hugh. Dublins Joyce. London: Chatto & Windus, 1956.
Levin, Harry T. James Joyce: A Critical Introduction. Norfolk Conn.: New
Directions, 1941.
MacGregor, Geddes. Artistic Theory in Joyce. Life and Letters 54 (1947):
20-32.
Richards, Bernard. Critical Idiom Epiphany, English Teaching in the United
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Schiralli, Martin. Art and the Joycean Artist. Journal of Aesthetic Education
23, no. 4 (1989): 37-50.
Scholes, Robert and Richard M. Kain. The Workshop of Daedalus. Evanston:
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Scholes, Robert and Florence L. Walzl. The Epiphanies of Joyce. PMLA
82, no. 1 (1967): 152-154.
Spencer, Theodore. A Succession of Epiphanies. In James Joyces Dubliners:
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